Actually, the CC will advise and guide, your student with do most of the work, and you can be as involved as you want to be or not, up to you. It is absolutely possible to not lift a single finger and your child will still get into college (really!) or to be so involved you completely lose or abuse one of the primary benefits of BS. I think the best approach is to let your child and the school do what each does best with your input, but allow the school to expertly drive the bus.
Most schools will host College Information Weekends junior year so you can ask questions and understand their processes and what they require (and don’t) from you. You don’t have to wait until junior year to attend one of these, but it really isn’t necessary to start thinking about the college process too much until the school begins to engage the junior class. I think most schools also provide an intake form to get what they need from you. I posted Choate’s form the year we received it:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20720476#Comment_20720476
In addition, our son’s GC held a session for the parents of her students to introduce herself, her background, her expectations of us and our students, and what we could expect from her throughout the process. She was transparent and blunt from start to finish and was readily available.
In general, though, the counselor will incorporate your input while helping your student craft an appropriate list of colleges to apply to. They will also have your child set up a Naviance account and profile to track each step of this process, and you will have access to Naviance as well with as many views as the schools feels appropriate for parents to have. Don’t be surprised if what you can see at your school differs from what other parents see at another school. The schools control the level of Naviance access available to parents mostly to avoid misinterpretation of data, but your child’s GC should be happy to answer any questions you have from your views with context from the richer data behind their curtain. (This topic comes up every year and there are plenty of Naviance threads to enjoy with your martinis.)
The College Info Weekend sessions will go over all the things everyone has brought up here, including SAT subject tests, AP exams, timelines, transcripts/LORs, financial aid, merit aid, applying to schools as an artist or athlete, etc. Choate also hosted a session with the director of admissions from a selective college where we were all given the profiles of three fictional candidates to that school and asked to give an “admit,” “reject,” or “waitlist” decision on each, and then the AO gave us a peek behind their curtain as to how they might evaluate these candidates. Very enlightening.
I would hope that by the time your student is a junior, the school has earned your trust, and you have confidence in their expertise in this area. They have been in this business a lot, lot longer than we have and will advise you on things you haven’t even thought of yet. The process is organized, personal, thorough and, crazy as it may seem to you now, the school will know your kid as a student better than you will by the time this process begins. Just as important, they know and have relationships with the colleges. They are uniquely qualified to help your student find their best college home. But don’t be surprised if the college list your child and GC eventually craft bears little resemblance to the one that may be shaping in your head right now. My advice is to let those lists go now while your mental fingers are still loose, relax, and let this process unfold in due course. It’s an exciting and potentially anxious time, but you can be certain that your child will land in an excellent place. All our CC kids do. Really. 